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Eagles fly past Lady Builders

Above: Cecilia Alvarez, junior midfielder, races against an Oklahoma Wesleyan player to get the ball. (Photography by Tessa Castor/Staff Photographer)

By Layne Phillips

Staff reporter

The Lady Builders lost their first conference game of the season Friday night against # 21 Oklahoma Wesleyan University (7-1-1, 2-0 KCAC).

Despite a good performance by Olyvia Bish, senior goalkeeper, the Builders ultimately fell 4-1 at the conclusion of the contest.

“I think she did really well and defensively I think we played one of our better games,” said Joe Wood, head coach. “We still have some little things to work on.”

With the loss, the Builders fall to 4-5-0 on the season and 1-1 in the KCAC collectively.

Oklahoma Wesleyan forward Taylor Gross opened up the scoring with a penalty kick goal in the eleventh 11th minuteof the game. In the 25th minute, Oklahoma Wesleyan forward, Kaja Cremin, scored from inside the eighteen yard box creating a 2-0 defecit. Even though Southwestern led in the shots on goal department 9 to 5 respectively, the Builders still found themselves trailing at the half.

In the 53rd minute, the Eagles capitalized on a Builder mistake and pushed their lead to 3-0. Not even a minute later, Karrie McNutt, senior midfielder, scored off an assist from Maria Munoz, senior midfielder. Gross would eventually tack on another goal to produce a convincing 4-1 lead.

Even though the Lady Moundbuilders led in shots 16 to 15, Oklahoma Wesleyan won the shots on goal battle 10 to 9. Likewise, the Eagles had 5 corner kicks in comparison to SC’s 0 on the night.

The Lady Builders are back in action Oct. 4 at Ottawa University. Ottawa is also coming back from a loss to Oklahoma Wesleyan last week. They are currently ranked #10 in the country, but Wood believes that ranking will drop after their prior loss to OKWU last week.

“They are a good team. I would say they are traditionally a bigger scoring threat than Oklahoma Wesleyan,” said Wood. “They’re going to be just as big of a challenge for us.”

Bish, who finished with 6 saves on the night, provided her input on the future matchup.

“I’m going into the Ottawa game fairly confident considering the way we played against Oklahoma Wesleyan,” said Bish. “Having lost to Oklahoma Wesleyan, I’m really excited to maybe get a tie or a win.”

The next Lady Builder home game is set for 4:30 p.m. Oct. 7 at Richard L. Jantz Stadium against York.